Azam Ghouri: Andhra's Kargil connection

The Andhra Pradesh police and
central intelligence agencies are keeping a close watch on the activities of
several fundamentalist organisations in the state in the wake of the operations in Kargil .

The intelligence agencies are, however, not too sure about the report
that the intruders in Kargil include Azam Ghouri, a top-ranking leader of Lashkar-e-Toiba, who
hails from Warangal district.

Ghouri, originally from Hanmajipet in Warangal, left the outlawed People's War
Group almost a decade ago after one of his hands was injured
in a grenade attack.

Later, he moved to Bombay and subsequently crossed
over to Pakistan to join the Lashkar-e-Toiba.

He is reported to have obtained
training in the use of explosives from the Taliban militia in Afghanistan.

During the two decades of his militant activities, Ghouri is
suspected of involvement in as many as 60 major crimes.

The list is exhaustive.

On August 12, 1993, some miscreants planted bombs with
timer devices in the vicinity of Humayun Nagar and Abids police stations in
Hyderabad at the behest of Ghouri.

The bombs exploded causing damage
to the compound wall of Humayun Nagar police station and injuring the
watchman of a shop adjacent to Abids police station.

In another incident on September 12, 1993, a powerful bomb explosion
rocked the central reservations complex of Secunderabad railway station,
killing two railway officials and seriously injuring another.

On October 22, 1993, a bomb exploded at an educational institute at Nampally,
killing a person on the spot and causing injuries to two others.

Similarly, a bomb exploded in the compartment of the Andhra Pradesh
Express near Moula Ali on December 6, 1993, killing two persons and
injuring 14 others.

All the above incidents are believed to be the handiwork of Ghouri.

The Hyderabad City Police also found links between Ghouri and ISI
activists arrested in the city.

On November 13, 1993, Hyderabad City
police arrested four persons and recovered a revolver, hand grenades,
explosive materials, documents and cash from their possession.

All four allegedly had links with both Ghouri and ISI and were planning subversive
activities in the city.

Again, on January 22, 1995, the Hyderabad City Police arrested two
city-based youth at Bangalore in Karnataka. They were imparted
training in Islamabad by the ISI to undertake disruptive activities in
India.

In yet another breakthrough in July 1998, the city police unearthed an ISI
plot when they arrested three agents and 13 of their supporters and seized
four pistols, 60 cartridges, 18 kilograms of RDX, three VHF man-pack sets and a
remote control exploding device from their possession.

Three more persons were arrested in a pre-emptive raid in September 1998. The Pakistani agents, Mohammed Saleem Junaid of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Mohammed Shafiq and Farooq Ahmed, had planned to organise serial bomb blasts in Hyderabad on Ganesh Chathurthi day.

Their interrogation indicated that they were in close touch with
Ghouri. The intelligence agencies also suspected that Ghouri had
visited Nizamabad clandestinely and held consultations with the
PWG.

Ghouri is also said to have tried to spread his operations to Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.

The activities of the ISI came to the notice of the Andhra Pradesh police almost seven years
ago.

It was on November 29, 1992 that three brothers of a family hailing
from Sangareddy in Medak district gunned down an additional superintendent
of police Krishna Prasad and his gunman Venkateswara Rao in a shoot-out at
Brindavan colony in the city.

The brothers, Najeeb Ahmed, Laiq Ahmed and Habeeb Ahmed, were associated
with the Hizbul Mujahideen. After a brief stint in Kashmir in 1992, Mujeeb
Ahmed returned to Hyderabad and sought to recruit vulnerable youth and
organise subversive activities in the state capital.

After the shoot-out
incident, Laiq Ahmed was killed in an encounter with the police. Najeeb
Ahmed, however, is still absconding.